Dylan Thomas - And Death Shall Have No Dominion

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead mean naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

Dylan Thomas

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Music

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• Dylan Thomas
• Reading
• Poetry
• Writers
• XX Century Poets

[1villigeidiot]

It's funny... That I love this poem.. And I don't like his own reading of it.... Give a poet a pulpit... And his voice becomes like stone.. Confident and brash. I always heard the line "and death shall have no dominion" as someting quiet and yet firm.. I'll keep away from the pulpit myself..... Though I love this poem more than anything, and hope someday... "To have Stars at elbow and foot..." I'll keep to my fields, my sheep, and my dogs.. And I'll leave the pulpit to the preachers and poets-

[Bjarku]

@Thereisonlythemoment great to see someone else seeing zen in this poem

[richardsaxecoburg]

My favourite poet.

[yippitydodah]

"break in the sun 'til the sun breaks down"

Hard to belive he was only fifteen of so when he wrote this. And his recitation heard here in later life just adds to the magic.

[Thereisonlythemoment]

"Though lovers be lost love shall not" - no attachment to form, people come and people go but Love always remains. Death is but a moment of Change. Interesting Poem.